Consolation prizes - The power of youth

Name : Ng Chee Kar

No Matric : 204984

Title of Essay : The Power of Youth

Speaking as a student in UUM I would say time passes very fast. In a blink of an eye, you have already ended your second class of the day and dragging your heavy legs to your last class of the day. For some reason you can feel the time passes really fast in UUM, but then did you ever ask yourself, did you utilizes your time well?

We are the so called generation Y, the generation that is being exposed with the diversity of the world, and also being provide with the most advance technology. The generation Y is expected to generate innovative and creative ideas to change the world. Unfortunately, the youth now is not doing that as a matter of fact they don’t even care what happen to the world. The youth in UUM is a very good reality check, approximate 20 thousand students in UUM, and 95 percent of those students are wasting their time on things like watching drama, playing online games, stalking YouTube, and etc. This phenomenon is not just in UUM, I believe it also happens in all around the country.

Yes, the situation sounds gloom but there are still hope, there are still youth despite being only a handful, is still getting their hands dirty in making a change to the world. This year for example, myHarapan organized with AIESEC in Malaysia an event just for youth, Youth Nation Summit. It is a conference that empowers youth to execute CSR, and share ideas among aspirational youth. I was very lucky to able to participate in this epic event and it totally changes my perspective. I was inspired by lots of speakers like Joel Neoh (CEO of Groupon Malaysia), Steve McCoy (Founder of Counterpoint), and Ng Khai Lee (CEO of SAYS.my). Aside from being inspired by these speakers, being just around with youth that is full of passion and enthusiasm to make a change is just mind blowing.

Apart from Youth Nation Summit, I came across a group of people that call themselves the EPIC Army. EPIC Army is a group of youth founded by Johnson Oei, whichbelieves in the collective power of people to continuously redefine conventional ways of doing good while making a positive impact in our communities. With their motto, “Do little with many and change the world in your spare time”. Their latest project is to build a new and a safer house for the families in a very rural town call Kampung Hulu Tamu at Kota Kinabalu. These people despite some of them is still working and some is still studying, they contribute a little of their time to help others.

For those KL-ite or people living in Klang Valley should have heard of Urbanscape. If you have not, seriously you need to get your buttocks out of your bed. Urbanscapes is the first and only all-day creative arts festival in the Klang Valley. Urbanscapes aims to bring together communities and participants from the fields of music, the arts, design, film and other creative discipline under a single banner to showcase the best of the local scene. Urbanscape is truly a spectacular, every corner you took and every booth you visit you will never fail to let a gasped or a wow. You will truly be amazed by how creative and innovative youth can be. Being there for just half a day. I am extremely impressed, impressed not just by how creative they are, but also by how determine and passionate are these youth in doing whatever it takes to achieve their goal. Indirectly, they motivated me to work harder in order for me to achieve my goal.

We have approximate of youth in Malaysia, but only about 5% of them are busy making changes, but this 5% did not just give up or submit by their minority, in fact, there are more motivated as unlike their friends, they are doing something great. These people despite being the minority, they are proud, that they are making changes to the world. So what about the remaining 95%? Will you just sit idly by and just let those minorities doing something constructive? As youth, you should contribute to the world.